FG employs 350 Niger Delta ex-militants

FG employs 350 Niger Delta ex-militants

The Federal Government has so far 350 former agitators from the Niger Delta region, the Presidency has said.

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier-General Paul Tarela Boroh (rtd), said this in Abuja weekend while addressing State House correspondents.

He said the beneficiaries, who were among the about 30,000 ex-agitators sponsored for various studies abroad by the Amnesty Office, had been posted to various ministries.
“The federal government ensured that about 350 of them have been employed in the various ministries in the country. We are only waiting for appropriation so that once they report to their various ministries they will start earning their salaries,” he said.
Boroh dismissed reports that some of the ex-militants had been abandoned owing to the failure of the amnesty office to pay their school fees and allowances.

“I will never allow any of my children schooling outside this country under government (sponsorship) to suffer. So as we speak 96 per cent of those on off-shore scholarship have graduated and returned home. I have only a few, in fact not more than 10,000 of them left in the entire globe where they have been schooling in the US, UK, Asian countries and South Africa – they have graduated and have come home.

“The ones that refused to graduate and are trying to make life unbearable for themselves is their own cup of tea. The federal government is not responsible for them anymore,” Boroh said.

The presidential aide also stated that no date had been fixed for the collapse of the amnesty programme.

“We have achieved 96 per cent. We have only few left, from the 30,000, we have a balance of about 10,000 left that need to be reintegrated and we are looking at Mr President’s vision of alternative to our oil in reintegrating our youths, that has to do with agriculture and that is the focus for which the programme is on now. We are focusing on agriculture as a way of life for the youth in the Niger Delta region.”

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